Women and children are facing a “terrifying situation” following the Government’s decision not to extend the ban on evictions, National Women’s Council director Orla O’Connor told hundreds of demonstrators in Dublin city centre on Wednesday.
Demonstrators, marching on International Women’s Day, congregated at the Spire on O’Connell Street before marching across College Green to the Dáil on Kildare Street.
The march was organised by Rosa, which describes itself as “a pro-choice, socialist feminist activist group committed to building struggle against all gender oppression, racial oppression, exploitation, inequality and capitalism”.
The march drew a number of supportive cheers from members of the public as it made its way across the city, before the crowd was urged to shine the lights on their phones when they reached Leinster House.
Addressing the crowd, Ms O’Connor said the Government’s decision not to extend the moratorium on evictions, which will come to an end on March 31st, would force single parent families – and primarily women and children – into homelessness.
“We know that women are at most risk of poverty in Ireland, and particularly migrant and disabled women,” she said. “It is also the case for one-parent families, and one-parent families were dealt a devastating blow yesterday with the end to the eviction ban.
“They are most reliant on private rented accommodation, and they are most at risk of homelessness.
“What happened yesterday was a disgrace, because we know that more one parent families will enter homelessness, and it is a terrifying situation for women with children.”
Also addressing the crowd, UCD Students’ Union president Molly Greenough said women “have a right to be angry”.
“We have the right to be angry, and we should be angry,” she said. “We have to use that anger to mobilise, to organise, and to demand better.”
Rosa spokeswoman Ruth Coppinger said the lifting of the ban was “an absolutely horrendous act” that would mean “the potential throwing on to the streets of women and children”.
“Women and children will be on the streets because of this,” she said. “It is hard to think of a more cruel and callous policy to be carried out at this time.
“For all the sob stories of accidental, reluctant, and potentially homeless landlords we’ve been hearing about in the media, the beneficiaries of the lifting of this ban are institutional investors and vulture funds.”
Speakers from a diverse range of backgrounds delivered speeches that also called for an end to violence against women, as well as better maternity care in the Irish public health system.
